I published five Figure Skating Mysteries with Berkley Prime Crime, in which I described skating routines, skating arenas, skating costumes and skating music with any and every word I had at my disposal. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if readers could actually see what I was describing?

Thanks to recent advances in technology, now they can!

“Skate Crime: Multimedia” is an excerpt from my fifth book, “Skate Crime,” with videos linked right into the text as an integral part of the plot!

Who’s your favourite author?

John Steinbeck. I love how he is able to convey (show, not tell) huge, sweeping, universal sentiments with an absolute minimum of words. I love George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” in particular, for the same reason. There is not an extra adjective in the entire book. Then again, when I was thirteen years old, I wanted to grow up to be Sidney Sheldon. So I’m pretty eclectic.

Do you have tips for budding writers?

Write every day. Not just when you feel like it, or when you’re inspired, or, especially, when it’s easy. Treat it like a job. Or a sport. If you practice a sport every day, you will inevitably get better. (As choreographer Joe Gideon tells his student in the movie, “All That Jazz,” – “I can’t make you a great dancer, but I can make you a better dancer.” Sports, dance… like I said, I’m pretty eclectic). If you write every day, especially those days when you don’t feel like it, you will get better.

What are you working on now?

I have just received the rights back to all of my Figure Skating Mysteries, “Murder on Ice,” “On Thin Ice,” “Axel of Evil,” “Death Drop” and “Skate Crime.” I intend to enhance them all. I am also enhancing my romance novel, “When a Man Loves a Woman.” But, not with skating videos….